Google has ended support for the video carousel markup documentation (limited access) and associated rich results because after testing structured data they realized it was not useful at scale. Publishers of sites that use this specific structured data do not necessarily have to remove it; other search engines may find them useful. However, Google will not use it for rich results.
Google removed a paragraph from the documentation section labeled “Video with key moments in search results.”
Deleted paragraph:
Video Host Carousel (Limited Access): Allows users to browse your video gallery pages by adding ItemList structured data. This feature is currently limited to a small set of providers. Google Search can automatically display a host carousel for your site without you having to add structured ItemList data.”
Google also removed the entire structured data example.
Screenshot of the deleted structured data example
Screenshot of a web page with an example json-ld videoobject structured data. text and code snippets are clearly visible, intended to explain how to implement structured data for a video about autonomous bicycles.
Google removed a link to “Carousel Guidelines” from the section titled Guidelines where Google links to specific documentation for the guidelines, but interestingly, the page it links to still exists.
Here’s what was removed:
Google removed the following sentence from the “Structured Data Type Definitions” section:
“ItemList: Mark pages with a list of videos to enable a video host carousel.”
And the entire section listing recommended properties is now gone.
Screenshot of removed recommended properties section
Screenshot of a coding tutorial page showing sample json code for adding video objects to a list of items, with explanations of list item and list item URLs .
Why Google removed the documentation
Google Developer Changelog list the following reasons why the documentation was removed:
“Removal of video carousel documentation (limited access).
What: Removed video carousel instructions from video structured data documentation.
Why: We initially tested the video carousel markup with a group of site owners and ultimately found that it wasn’t useful for the ecosystem at scale. You can leave the markup on your site so that search engines and other systems can better understand your web page.”
Read the updated guide for structured video data
Structured video data (VideoObject, Clip, BroadcastEvent).
View an archive of the old structured data documentation
Structured video data file (VideoObject, Clip, BroadcastEvent).
Featured image by Shutterstock/Koshiro K
